shuttle Job 7.6,7 All which Comparisons serve to express how short and swift our time is how suddenly it flies away and is gone Man that is born of a Woman saith Job Chap. 14.1 is of few days And Jacob when he was a great deal older than Men live to be now even 130 years old told Pharaoh saying Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been What are 40 or 60 or 80 years when a Man lives so long and looks back upon them all They appear to him but like a Shadow or as a Dream or like a Tale that is told Ought not this to move you to be good Husbands of your short time If it were in your own power to dispose of it according to your own humour and fancy you might then be pardoned to delay your great Work and Business till you thought good But now that it is not in your power to lengthen out your time one Minute what a madness is it for you to put off and neglect your greatest and chiefest Concern Therefore be so wise as to make good use of your present opportunities and occasions of doing good that you may work out your Salvation with fear and trembling and may make your calling and your Election sure Work while the day lasts for the night cometh wherein you cannot work If a Man who is guilty of Treason or Rebellion against his Prince or of any other great Crime which deserves death were allowed a few days to sue out his Pardon that he might secure his Life and Estate would he not improve with great care and diligence that little time To be sure he would not lose one moment of it And tho' perhaps at other times he was wont to give up himself to his pleasures and pastimes and to mind little else but the gratifying his Lusts and Passions and his Vanity and Folly yet now that his Life and Fortune lie at the stake you should see such a man changed in a moment You should see him with great application of mind with the utmost diligence imploying his time running from place to place from one person to another according as his great and important business and concern required How readily would such a Person redeem his time not only from Idleness from Gaming from impertinent Visits and from dressing and adorning of his Body and the like but even from eating and drinking and from his rest and repose in the night The desire of preserving his life would so fill his thoughts as to make him forget almost every thing else What would you think or say if you should see a man in such circumstances wholly unconcerned and careless spending his time in Gaming or Idleness in making impertinent Visits in rioting and drinking and the like and doing nothing at all to obtain his pardon and to secure his life and fortune Doubtless you would look upon such a man as void of common understanding fit only for Bedlam or not worthy to live who knew no better to make use of his short time to preserve his life which Nature teacheth all Men to do by all honest and lawful means It is easie for you to make application of all this to your selves You are by your Sins Enemies to God Rebels against your Lord and King whereby you are in danger of everlasting death and destruction But God in his infinite mercy gives you time to sue out your Pardon which he offers you upon the most just and reasonable conditions only believe and repent and you shall be saved he will have mercy upon you and blot out your iniquities Be therefore so wise as to husband well this short time which God bestows on you for this purpose Redeem it as much as you can from all vain and unnecessary things that you may obtain forgiveness of Sins and the assistance of the Holy Spirit to enable you afterwards to walk in newness of life But if instead of minding this great and important concern of your Souls you give up your selves to sin and folly and indulge your selves in your mad and wicked practices and thereby provoke God yet more and more against you how just will your Judgment and Condemnation be if you will not be saved if you will not turn to the Lord that you may live if you will not believe repent and amend what remains you shall certainly dye and be miserable for ever They that will not be happy shall not be happy The wrath of God shall abide upon them 2. Motive from the uncertainty of your Time Secondly Consider that as your time is very short so it is most uncertain What do you know whether your Sun shall decline leisurely or whether it may not go down suddenly when you think it is not yet come to the Noon-tide of the Day You are not sure to live till you come to a good old Age. How many sicknesses and distempers and how many sudden accidents are there in the way which may shorten your day and cause your Sun to set when you think it shines with its greatest force and lustre Sometimes a Candle is blown out by the Wind or snufft out undesignedly when it is not yet half burnt And so the life of Man is often extinguished by outward accidents when by the course of Nature it might have been prolonged much further How many come forth into the World and give great appearances of making a very considerable figure in it by their Wisdom and Sagacity their good Conduct and Address their Excellent Parts and useful Learning their Courage and Valour their Charming Eloquence and clear and distinct Reasoning or by their shining Piety and burning Zeal But do not you see how suddenly they are gone they are hurried away by death and you neither see them nor hear of them any more There is nothing certain as to your time but its shortness and uncertainty Nothing can secure you against an unexpected blow by death when God sees fit to give charge to the King of Terrors to knock you down Youth and strength cannot do it for how many die when their Breasts are full of milk and their bones are moistened with marrow Too great abundance of Blood and Spirits doth sometimes oppress and stifle the life of Man Wealth and Riches cannot secure you How many great and wealthy men have been suddenly carried away as with a Flood when their Coffers were full of Silver and Gold when they had all that heart could wish Even their Wealth proved the bait which allured idle covetous and desperate Persons to break into their Houses and rob them not only of their Treasure but of their Lives Greatness of Power and earthly Honour and Dignity are not able to do it Crowns and Scepters Castles and Palaces a wise Council and great Armies are not able to protect Princes from the violent and desperate attempts of Men who are prodigal of their lives How many of those who have been most
famous in the World for their Power and Greatness have been very unexpectedly removed by a violent and sudden death When they have been in their greatest heighth at the very top of Earthly Felicity and full of the deepest Projects and Designs when they made account to make the Earth as it were to tremble to humble and to mortifie their Enemies to enlarge their own Dominions or to enslave their Subjects even then Death gave them a sudden blow and so there was an end of them and their designs together But may not Wisdom and Understanding great Learning and Skill in various Arts and Sciences do somewhat to secure Men from the sudden blow of Death No all this cannot do it We see even Wise Men suddenly and unexpectedly removed from us by Death as well as others In the midst of their useful Studies and excellent contrivances and designs the King of Terrors puts a stop to them and in the twinkling of an Eye they are gone and all their thoughts are laid asleep So vain a thing is Man and even the wisest Man and so uncertain is his time Consider that Death can enter by a thousand doors Every pore in your Body is a Gate wide enough for Death to enter in at Do not you see what a small thing makes way for Death The prick of a Thorn or a Splinter of Wood does it sometimes by occasioning a Fever or a Gangrene How quickly are some removed by violent and unexpected Distempers and sometimes on a sudden are struck dead you cannot tell how Have not some dyed through an excess of joy and others through immoderate grief some by excessive laughter and others by too much mourning and weeping Some have died with a fright or sudden fear some by the violence of their anger and wrath and others by an excess of Love How many have been killed with over much care and too great watching and others have occasioned their own death by idleness and too much sleep Some have killed themselves with eating and drinking and others have done it by too great abstinence and fasting Have not some died while they have been at Meals by a Crumb or a little Bone or some such very small matter When they were thinking to repair their strength and to fit themselves for going on with their business and work that which they did to save and lengthen out their lives did shorten them and put an end to them May not this instance alone shew you the great uncertainty of your time and how necessary it is to redeem it But besides all this consider that when you go abroad you are in danger from innumerable accidents You may be killed by the noisome steams of the Earth by some infectious quality in the Air by the Beasts of the Field by the teeth of mad Dogs by the horns of enraged Oxen or by the heels of wild Horses You are likewise in danger from the winged Creatures the least of whom have Weapons sufficient to destroy you if God by his Power and Justice arm them against you How remarkable was the manner of the death of Aeschylus an ancient Poet in Sicily Valer. Max. lib. 9. cap. 12. who as he sate in a Sunny place without the Walls of the City was killed by a Tortoise which an Eagle let fall on his head And no less memorable is the Story which is mentioned in the Book of Martyrs of one Burton Bailiff of Crowland in Linconshire who pretending to be a Friend to the Reformation in King Edward's time after the King's death began to set up the Popish Mass again and would have beaten the Curate if he had not complied with his design But see how the Lord's hand overtook him as he came riding from Fenbank one day a Crow flying over his head let fall her Excrements upon his face the noisom scent whereof so annoyed his stomach that he never ceased vomiting till he came home And after falling deadly sick would never receive any meat but vomited still and complained of that stink cursing the Crow that had poisoned him and in a few days he died Besides the danger you are in from unreasonable Creatures are you not also sometimes in hazard from Men who are mad either through the distemper of their Brain or through their violent Malice and Envy Let a Bear robbed of her Whelps saith Solomon meet a Man rather than a Fool in his folly Prov. 17.12 And not only are your Lives in danger from unreasonable Creatures and from Men but likewise from the Spirits of Darkness unless restrained by the mighty Power of God These are Enemies of great Power and of as great yea greater Malice But your heavenly Father keeps them as it were in chains and sets bounds to their rage and fury that they cannot hurt you so much as in a hair of your head without the Divine permission But further so uncertain is your time that there is not a stone nor a block in your way but it may be an occasion of your stumbling and falling into the snares of Death And sometimes when there is no such block in your way you are not secure from danger One foot may prove a stumbling-block to the other and an occasion of your falling into the hands of Death When you walk in the streets either for Business or Divertisement and have not the least apprehension of any danger even then Death may hang over your Heads Every Tile on the House-tops may by its unexpected fall as you pass by beat out your Brains and so put an end to all your Thoughts and Motions And more than all this in how great danger are your Lives from Fire and from Water from Heat and Cold from Storms and Tempests from Thunder and Lightning and many other things the stroke whereof you cannot prevent nor foresee God hath in store the Sword the Famine and Pestilence and innumerable Judgments and Plagues whereby he can cut you off and shorten your Lives When you are in your houses and think your selves in safety you know not but that Death is even there and that your Grave is ready for you By a sudden Wind by an Earthquake or by a decay in the Foundation or some other part of the Building the House may fall down about your ears and prove your burying place So true is it what Solomon says Eccl. 9.12 For Man also knoweth not his Time as the Fishes that are taken in an evil Net and as the Birds that are caught in the Snare So are the Sons of Men snared in an evil Time when it falleth suddenly upon them From all which you may conclude that your time is the most uncertain thing in the World Ought you not therefore to make good use of it while it lasts not knowing how soon and suddenly it may be at an end 3. Motive from the greatness and difficulty of the work you have to do Thirdly Consider how great and difficult a work you
pastime who take pleasure in publishing their weaknesses and indiscretions that others also may laugh at them and despise them who when their Parents grow old and poor 〈◊〉 when themselves come to have more Wealth and Honour in the World than their Parents have do thenceforth turn their backs upon their poor Parents are ashamed to own them and will not any longer take notice of them How dreadful and terrible are the Curses and Judgments which God hath in store against such wretched Children Deut. 27.16 Cursed be he that setteth light by his Father or his Mother Prov. 30.17 The Eye that mocketh at his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother the Ravens of the vallies shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it That is he who is a mocker and scorner of his Parents who despises and slights them shall die a shameful death and remain unburied and shall be exposed to the Birds and Beasts of prey to be eaten of them It does not follow from hence that all perverse wretched Children come to such a shameful and untimely end Only it shews what oft-times happeneth and is very usual to wit that such mockers and despisers of Parents are punished remarkably by the Justice of God in this World and are made Examples to all others who will open their Eyes to consider the hand of God against such ungodly Children As for Instances of the Divine Justice against Mockers of Parents all Ages and Countries are full of them C ham was made an Example of this Gen. 9.22,24,25 And C ham the Father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his Father and told his two brethren without And Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done unto him And he said Cursed be Canaan a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren In which words the Canaan the Son of Cham is only mentioned yet Cham is not exempted from the Curse his punishment is hereby made so much the greater because he is not only pronounced accursed in his own person which is necessarily to be supposed he having committed the sin which caused the Curse but also in his Posterity which could not but increase mightily his grief and make his punishment lye more heavy upon him Ezekiel reckons this Sin of contemning and dishonouring Parents as one great cause of the dreadful Judgments which God inflicted upon the Jews Ch. 22.7 In ye have they set Light by Father and Mother 2. Duty to obey their Parents and to hearken to their Instructions Secondly Children are to obey their Parents to do what they bid them See this in the Example of Joseph when Jacob sent him to his Brethren Gen. 37.13,14 And Israel said unto Joseph Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem Come and I will send thee unto them And he said to him Here am I. And he said to him Go I pray thee see whether it be well with thy brethren and well with the flocks and bring me word again so he sent him out of the vale of Hebron and he came to Shechem See likewise the Example of David 1 Sam. 17.17 18,20 Jesse said unto David his Son take now for thy Brethren an Ephah of this parched Corn and these Ten Loaves and run to the Camp to thy Brethren And carry these Ten Cheeses unto the Captain of their Thousand and look how thy Brethren fare and take their pledge And David arose early in the Morning and left the Sheep with a Keeper and took and went as Jesse had Commanded him c. The Commands of Parents are either about the same things which God hath commanded or they are about things indifferent or about things unlawful First if they are about the same things which God hath commanded they are so much the more to be obeyed as being the will and pleasure both of their Father in Heaven and of their earthly Parents In this case the obligation to obedience is double Eph. 6.1 Children saith the Apostle Obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right that is it is agreeable to all Law to the Law of God of Nature and of Nations 'T is that which is due to the place of Parents 'T is their right to be obeyed by their Children Secondly If their Parents Commands are about things indifferent that is which are neither commanded nor forbidden by God Children are likewise to obey them God hath made it their Duty so to do Col. 3.20 Children obey your Parents in all things for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. * Agreeable to this was the Sense of wise Heathens See A. Gell. l. 2. c. 7. This Obedience is very acceptable to him he takes great pleasure and delight in it to see those obeyed and submitted to whom he hath appointed to be as it were in his own stead whom he hath cloathed with some beams of Divine Power whom with relation to their Children he hath made in some sense sacred persons whose Will ought to be a Law unto them tho' only in the Lord. For Thirdly if the thing commanded be plainly unlawful they are to refuse compliance therewith because they are bound to obey God rather than Man rather than Father or Mother rather than all the World In this case they ought to hearken to what our Saviour saith Luk. 14.26 If any Man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother c. he cannot be my Disciple In which Words Our Saviour is far from encouraging Children to hate or to disobey their Parents for we see how zealously he vindicates the Authority of Parents upon other occasions But his Design is to teach Children when the Will of God and the Will of their Parents stand in Competition that then they ought always to give the preference to the Divine Will and to chuse rather to incur the displeasure of their Earthly Parents than to offend and provoke their Heavenly Father They ought to consider their Obligations to God are much greater than to their Parents he is the Maker both of them and of their Parents They live by his Bounty the Earth they tread on is his the Air they breathe in the Heavens that cover them the Food they eat the Water they drink the Garments that Cloath them and all other things which they enjoy for their benefit and comfort in the World are the Lord's He is their great Master who appoints them their business in the World and assures them of a reward He also will reckon with them and either reward or punish them according to their Works and therefore his Commands are to be preferred to those of all others But even in this case Children are to express in their very denial and refusal of obedience all that Honour and Respect to their Parents that 's possible that they may see it is not stubbornness but the fear of God which makes them disobey By this means Parents may perhaps be convinced and made sensible of
and so preserved him alive who otherwise must have dyed of Famine The like instance we meet with in the same Author Valer. Max. ibid. of a worthy Roman Daughter who did in the same manner preserve her Mother in Prison being Condemned to dye When the Keeper of the Prison to whom the charge of putting her to Death was committed found after some time that her Daughter kept her alive by giving her suck he was so affected with the greatness of the Daughter's Compassion and Tenderness to her Mother that he made it known to those in Power who were likewise so mightily touched with such an unusual instance of tender Affection that they pardoned the Mother as the greatest Reward they could bestow on the Daughter for her marvellous Affection What can there be more just and reasonable than for Children thus to endeavour to requite their Parents for their great care and kindness towards them when they were not able to help themselves The time was when their Parents were as Eyes and Hands and Feet to them they did every thing for them they not being capable to do any thing for themselves How ready therefore should they be to serve their Parents to assist them by all good Offices when their condition requires it This is a Duty to which Children are so strictly obliged to wit the assisting and relieving of their Parents that no pretence is sufficient to absolve them from the Obligation thereof The Pharisees thought they had found out an Exception from this Rule which was this that if Children gave away their Wealth to Pious and Charitable uses they were freed from the Obligation of relieving their Parents They taught them in this case to tell their Parents It is Corban that is to say a Gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me Mar. 7.11 And by saying this they made People believe that they were sufficiently freed from all Obligations to take care of and provide for their Parents But our Saviour reproves them severely telling them that this was no other than the making void the Commandments of God by their Traditions Against unkind and unnatural Children We may see from this what Judgment to make of such unkind undutiful and unnatural Children who do wholly neglect their Parents especially in their old Age and in their poor and low Estate who shew them no more pity and express no more love nor tenderness towards them than if they were not their Parents who grudge them the least supply and take all the wicked courses that they can to starve them to death that they may be rid of them who wish and long for and rejoyce in the Death of their poor Parents O what a horrid Barbarity and Inhumanity is this Shall not many Pagans rise up in Judgment against such Children and Condemn them How little do they deserve the Name of Christian Children Their true Name is Vnchristian and unnatural Children As Solomon bid the Sluggard go to the Ant so may we bid such hard-hearted and unmerciful Children go to the Stork of whom it is told * S. Basil in Hexaemer Homil. 8. Ambros Hexaem l. 5. c. 16. that when the old Dams cannot feed themselves their little ones feed and nourish them when their Feathers fall from them they cover them with their Feathers and when they are not able to fly they couple themselves together to carry them upon their Backs Let uncompassionate Children go to this compassionate Creature and consider her ways and be wise Let them learn from her to be more kind and affectionate and tender-hearted towards their Parents and not any longer to harden their Bowels against them 8. Duty to pray for their Parents 8thly Because all that Children can do is not sufficient to requite the Love and tender care of their Parents therefore they ought to pray to God that he would reward them and preserve them and keep them alive that he would supply all their wants and comfort them in all their troubles and requite their Love their tender care and their great cost and pains they have been at to bring them up and to educate them How happy are the Parents of such Children who are supplicants and intercessors at the Throne of Grace for good things unto them Such Children are the strength of their Parents they are a great blessing unto them Against Cursers of Parents If it be the Duty of Children thus to pray to God in behalf of their Parents what shall we say of those who neither pray for them nor themselves but live like the Beasts that perish and mind nothing that 's good And if their Crime is great who do not at all pray for their Parents how dreadful is their Guilt who Curse them What dreadful Judgments may such Monsters of wickedness expect Prov. 20.20 Who so Curseth his Father or his Mother his Lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness that is he shall be reduced unto a sad afflicted and miserable State his prosperous condition which is compared to Light or to a Lamp shall be turned into Adversity and Misery and that very great which is expressed by obscure Darkness he shall be made very miserable his state and condition in the World shall become most uncomfortable as it is for a Man who walketh in a way that is full of Light where he beholds a great many Objects which afford him pleasure and delight suddenly to be deprived of all this and to find himself all alone in obscure Darkness without all help and comfort By the Law of Moses such ungodly and unnatural Children were without any pardon to be put to death Exod. 21.17 He that Curseth his Father or his Mother shall surely be put to Death The Duties of Children towards their deceased Parents The Duties of Children towards their deceased Parents Besides the Duties which Children owe their Parents whilst they are alive there are some things likewise for them to do after their Decease Particularly 1. Duty they ought to bury them decently First They ought to bury them decently according to their Quality so far as the present Circumstances of their Estate will permit They ought on the one hand to avoid whatever looks like Baseness and Covetousness and which is not in some measure answerable to their Parents Estate and Place while they lived and on the other hand they ought to avoid an over-lavish Sumptuousness they must do nothing above their Estate or above their Rank and Quality A great many out of a vain and foolish humour of Solemnizing their Parents Funerals in a sumptuous and splendid manner have so far weakened their Estate as scarce ever to be able to recover themselves again Children therefore ought in this matter to govern themselves by the Advice and Example of Prudent and Discreet Persons of their own Rank in the World but especially they are herein to govern themselves by the Will of the Dead so far as it was made